Cemex backs marine conservation efforts

CEBU, Philippines - As part of its continuing commitment to the conservation of biodiversity, a cement corporation has assured to give its full support to the protection and rehabilitation of the marine lives in the coastal town of Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island.

“We were fairly successful in Donsol, so we’d like to replicate that project here in Sta. Fe,” said Darwin Mariano, Cemex’s public affairs director.

Mariano, in an interview with the media during the launching of their tie up with Batas Kalikasan in Sta. Fe last Marcy 15 and 16, said that Cemex Philippines Foundation finds it a “groundbreaking initiative” to develop a sustainable, science-based framework to protect threatened species and avoid their extinction. Batas Kalikasan is one of lawyer and environmentalist Antonio Oposas’s projects.

In May 2007, the foundation launched in Donsol, Sorsogon its Adopt-a-Wildlife-Species (AAWS) program, which is aimed at protecting the country’s whale sharks from extinction.

“Three years after and as a result of concerted efforts with our partners Conservation International, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, a joint Administrative Order on AAWS is ready to be signed,” said Mariano.

The order will allow organizations, companies and individuals to participate in the government’s campaign to conserve biodiversity and prevent species extinction.

With the success of the project, Cemex moved to Sta. Fe to join its concerted effort there to pump up more support in the protection of the environment there, which has been started by Oposa with his School of the Seas.

One of the plans, according to Mariano, is to build artificial reefs, made of Cemex cement, to be placed in one of the marine protected areas in the island. He explained that because of the weather, the area has already lost most of its corals there, mostly destroyed by waves, hence, artificial reefs, which will be specially designed to withstand the harshness of time and the corrosiveness of the seawater, will be dropped there soon.

Mariano together with Cemex officials, who came to the launching of the project, have pledged Cemex’s full support to the planned projects which also include environmental education and livelihood for the residents.

Cemex did not promise any amount for the project, but Mariano said they shelled out P10 million for the three-year project in Donsol.

There is no maximum amount for the project, there is also no deadline, he added.    (FREEMAN NEWS)